'Before what is over?'
Randy waved his hands, gesturing around himself, 'This. All of this.'
'There isn't any 'this' anymore. It's already over.'
'Not quite yet.' Randy came up behind her and put his arms around her waist, then rested his head on her shoulder. Slowly he kissed the side of her neck, then nibbled on her ear.
Katie closed her eyes and enjoyed the embrace for a moment before shaking him loose, 'You're not real.'
'What do you want me to say?'
'How can this be real? I saw you jump. I heard you hit. You didn't even scream.'
'I couldn't give away your position and I knew you wouldn't shoot me if I turned.'
'I would've.' she said flatly.
'There's the Katie I know and love. But you see? I do love you and I thought I should spare you that. It was the very least I could really.'
'You could have taken me with you.'
He shrugged and stepped back from her. 'We walked different paths.'
'Such bullshit. You'd think, because you are in my mind, I would do this to myself. I should make you answer me straight.'
'I don't think you are ready for straight answers.'
'And you're the decider?'
'No, I'm the spotter, I pick the targets, you shoot them. I call down the artillery, you cover my back.'
'Pulling rank again?'
He stepped back further into the darkness, 'You outranked me.'
'But I wasn't the forward observer, in the field you had command.'
Randy was barely visible now, he lingered for a moment and said, 'It was never about control.'
Katie's eyes flickered to her own for a moment, leaving his reflection, when she looked back he was gone and not there to hear her whisper, 'It was always about control.'
Chapter 17 — Max
Max stared at the small video screen on the backpack. When they had been shown how to operate the bomb they were impressed with the interface, which they could unlock using the codes provided by the military. The controlling computer allowed them to actually scale up or down the bomb and set a time delay and was incredibly easy to use. The screen they were looking at now didn't show any of the same options. It showed Draper, his large grin with white teeth gleaming in contrast against his black skin. The group had bundled back into the truck and driven to the interstate before stopping and investigating the beeping noise coming from the pack. The video had paused about halfway and Bill had restarted it from the beginning using the interface on the touch screen.
It showed Draper sitting in one of the rooms on the ship, his back to a gray colored wall.
'Sorry to do this to you.' Draper did look slightly guilty, averting his eyes for a moment from the camera that was recording his words, 'First things first, if you are seeing this message it means you opened up the pack to take a look at why it is beeping. I set an alarm to get your attention, I hope now is not a bad time. This device is still a bomb, it is still very dangerous. No offense to any of you, but it is naive to think the military would put a nuclear bomb in the hands of people who are essentially civilians. No disrespect is meant to Sergeant Ostling and his fine record of service. Before you get riled up let me tell you what you do have. For the record we have one too, so you are not the only Guinea pigs on this run.'
Draper paused and swallowed, the wiped his hand across his brow before continuing, he looked tired, 'What you have is known as a positronic bomb. It has been in development by the Air Force for over fifty years and cost us….well, money doesn't have the same meaning now, does it? Suffice it to say a large portion of the research and development money has gone into making a non-nuclear alternative explosive device. You ever wonder why we agreed so readily to the bomb cuts in late eighties and nineties? Or why nearly every president can cut our stock pile of nukes even further for political gain? Well wonder no more, these weapons are a state secret, I don't even know how many exist or in what forms.'
'So what does it do? I can reassure you that it is just as devastating as a nuclear device. The effects will be almost identical with one small difference, there will be no fallout. The one you are carrying is equivalent to ten kilotons of TNT. For a frame of reference the bomb we dropped on Hiroshima to end world war two was approximately fifteen kilotons. So why the bait and switch to give you a more powerful bomb? The funny thing about Military regulations is that this bomb is classified as experimental equipment, which you are authorized to test. The other quirky thing is that you are not, as drafted and retired soldiers, authorized to use nuclear weapons, not without years of training. So there you go. We could have broken the rules, but in a civilized society rules and regulations are what set us apart from the animals.'
'The bomb can still be used as you were instructed with two exceptions, first you cannot change the yield, it only has one setting; 'Big Boom'. Second, you will want to get much farther away from the device before you set it off. A mile would be good. At that distance you will need to be under cover from debris, but, as I said, there won't be any radiation to worry about. Don't worry about the technology; we tested one of these babies in Denver three weeks ago; it worked just fine and took out the main aggressor there, I believe Max and Stewart can vouch for that.'
'Good luck soldiers, fulfill your mission.'
The screen faded to black for a moment then automatically reset back to the first frame.
'Who is Sergeant Ostling?' Stewart asked.
'Me.' Ruben said
'Really?'
'All my life.'
'Is no one upset about this?' asked Max.
The five of them stared at one another, then Bill shook his head, 'Not really, we have a more powerful bomb, we have to get far away to use it if we want to live. It's experimental. Big surprise coming from Draper. I am more surprised they sent us five yahoos out to get this job done alone.'
'With all due respect Lieutenant, I think a small team like ours stands a better chance than a combat brigade. Plus they need all the men they have to help in the fighting out in Iowa.' Ruben said.
Bill shrugged his shoulders, looking unconvinced, 'I know we have Max, but would it have killed them to send a few Special Forces guys with us too?'
'We are 'special forces', untrained, unconventional. Special.' Stewart said.
'I am not sure I like what that implies.' Bill said, 'Ruben you said something about knowing why they didn't infect you back there, what do you know?'
The old man nodded his head, 'Yeah, the one guy with the messed up mouth, he wanted to start in on me right away. The other warned him not to.'
Stewart rolled her eyes, 'Sure, I had to kill the rational one, instead of the freak.'
Ignoring her comment Bill asked, 'So what did you hear?'
'Apparently this part of the country has some sort of law again, and it involves not eating anyone still alive.'
'What do they do with us?' asked Max.
'There is a camp in town here. I guess, from what I heard, there are camps all over the place.'
'That's…disturbing.' Stewart said.
'We gotta go get them.' Ruben rubbed his eyes, 'You can imagine what it would be like, people crowded together, every once in a while someone disappears. It could be your wife, your neighbor.' Ruben looked at Bill, 'Your kid.'
